Wiluna – Kununurra

Posted on 24. April 2016 by Markus

On the North Road heading north from Wiluna wie discussed how to Continue our trip. Since we normally intended to drive the Canning Stock Route (CSR) from Wiluna to Kunawaritji and then leave und he CSR via the Telfer Mine Road with a side-trip to Rudal River National Park, we now had a different idea: to visit the
Rudal River National Park first, then try the CSR from Well 23 to Kunawaritji and decide whether continuing on the track up to Halls Creek or leaving on the Telfer Mine Road. To save 70 km, we turned into the track to Jigalong after filling up our tank at Kumarina Roadhouse and campend along this track. On the way, Daniela phoned the surprised head officer….of Jigalong (which tourist wanted to go to Jigalong??) WHO have us the permit without any problem. 40 km before Jigalong, we found ourselves on a deserted and overgrown track which surprisingly corresponded exactly to the track on the HEMA-map. At the turn-off to a bigger, regularly travelled route we read a hand-wrtten sign in the …mirrow: „Road closed“ – the track had been moved a few hundred meters. Via Jigalong and Walgun we came into the recently graded Talawana-Track. After another 170km we could turn into the sandy stony track towards the Rudal River National Park. This Park is situated in one of the most remote regions of the country – wie had it for ourselves and could witness a wonderful sunset.

Since everything was ok up to now, we dared on the the 26.4. to continue towards the Canning Stock Route. The track was better than expected, we even met the grader on it and arrived already shortly after noon at Georgia Bore. With good bore water brought up with the hand pump we showered (with our solar shower, that is a water bag connetcted to a shower had and functioning by gravity) and washed dishes to save our drinking water. In the evening the Easter-Bilby (australian easter-rabbit…) visited our kids and the next day we started the adventure CSR and drove as the first car of this year from well to well.

At the beginning of the last century they drilled altogether 51 wells for the cattle driven from the north into the gold mining towns in the south. Close to well 23, the first official CSR-Well we passed, is the fuel depot of the track (overall distance 1700km). We knew from the Capricorne-Roadhouse, that they have not done yet any fuel drop this year and we read from people in the internet who stocked up on remaining fuel. We also were lucky ro find several barrels with diesel and took the chance. We filled up our tank and all the empty jerry cans (100 l) and Procedere with 190 l of diesel for the remaining 900km.

The condition of the track was better than we read in many reports, the corrugations were filled up with blown sand. After cooling down with the water from well 26 we reached well 28 that day. From well 24, the famous dune crossings started, but with the right tyre pressure we never had a real problem.

Next we were heading to the intersection of the Telfer Mine Road (Wapet Road) and the Jenkins Track close to Kunawaritji where normally we would have had to fuel up (1 liter Diesel 3,40 $) – which was no longer necessary after our free refill. We also would have had the possibility to leave the CSR here via the Telfer Mine Road. The planend overnighter at well 33 was not possible since the well overflooded the campground and the track. A local man from Kunawaritji created us a detour to get back to the CSR. We were now heading to well 35 and had made the decision to drive the CSR up to Halls Creek!

The next day we continued on the track and after well 39, we reached on of the crux of the track:Lake Tobin. If the lake was already dry??? Luckily, it was and Daniela could enjoy a smooth track over a dry salt pan. We even saw camels and a dingo.

At well 41, we relaxed after an uncountable number of curves and dunes. At night, we heard dingos howling next to our tent and were happy to have a roof top tent..The advantage of being the first vehicle on the track were less corrugations, the disadvantage was that we had to clear it from fallen branches, trees (3x with the saw). Some termite tribes who bulit their homes directly on the track during the rainy seaon were carefully displaced with their complete termite mound.

The second last day, we made it to Breadon Hills (between well 47 and 48) and, too early, we were happy about the easy ride. The next morning, we first discovered a flat tyre which had to be changed. What followed, was the most difficult and demanding section of the track: it looked nice on the map with only a few creek crossings, but deep washouts made our life difficult. Several times, we had to create new detours and find back onto the track afterwards. It took a long time to get to well 49 where the track improved. Now the question was, if it was possible to cross Lake Gregory. After a few hundreds meters towards the lake on a track which became more and more overgrown, we turned round and took the western bypass which was in a good condition. We even found some fresh tyre prints – meaning that another car passed through in this year! Civilisation! Shortly before our last night on the track, we met another cat driving into the CSR from the north.

We passed the last horrible night with an enourmous amount of mosquitoes, rain and humid heat at the normally beautiful Stretch Lagoon. At least, we could use the lagoon to localize the hole in the second damaged tyre of our journey. Unfortunately, it was on the side where one of the many branches on the track had punched through.

On the way to Halls Creek, we visited the Wolfe Meteor Crater, the Second largest Meteor crater in the world with a diameter of 5km. In Halls Creek, we could fill up again our gas bottle – it got empty on the CSR and we had to cook with our dirty fuel stoves for the rest of the time. And on the camp site, all of us had a shower.
Since they had no suitable replacement for our punched tyre and they could not repair it, wie continued our trip on the tarred road to Broome. We made a stop-over in Fitzroy Crossing where we hikes through the beautiful Geikie Gorge and enjoyed the nice campsite at Fitzroy River Resort with a pool.

In Broome, first we organizes a new second hand tyre and stocked up on food for the next days. We staid for five days on Cable Beach Caravan Park. The climate in the city was difficult to bear for everyone: during the day we had up to 40°C – sweat was dropping down even when not moving. In the uncomfortable, sleeping-lacking nights it only cooled down very little and the humidity raised up to 90%. Apart from the city center, we visited the Malcolm Douglas Wildlife Park, did a camel ride with the kids at Cable Beach and visited the museum. On the campsite, many travellers were waiting for the Gibb River Road to open. Here, we met again family Buchmann and the children were happy about the company.

On friday 08.04., we continued to Cape Leveque where we staid on the pearl farm in Cygnet Bay, and learnt a lot about culturing oysters and pearls. On the way back, we spent one night in Middle Lagoon directly on the cliff above the ocean where we could watch the gigantic tidal differences of 11m.

After stocking up food supplies for the next 10 days and replacing tyre number 3 (a piece of the profile was torn out)( wie fuelled up (190 l) and headed towards Derby.
There, we visited the famous Prison Tree and made it on the Gibb River Road up to Poultons Pool. The next day, we drove through the former Devonian Reef to Tunnel Creek where the river has caved the mountain on a distance of 750m and you can wade through the water when the water level is low enough- a wonderful adventure for the kids. We staid for two nights at the Windjana Gorge campground. Only the first part of the hiking trail through the gorge had been used in this season , afterwards we had to beat us through the jungle. We alsp saw the first freshwater crocodiles here.

Unfortunately, the King Leopold National Park was still completely closed – on our way to the East, we visited Adcock-Gorge, Galvans-Gorge and Barnett-River Gorge before spending the night at Hann River.
Since most accomodation and most of the side roads (also those to Kalumburu und Mitchell Plateau) were still closed, in the afternoon, we reached the Pentcoste-River which had to be crossed. Like all the river crossings on this road, it was not a problem at a water level of 40cm – there was relatively few rain in the last wet season.

We camped at the shore of the river. The next day we went on to El Questro, a beautiful resort with good hikes – on the 17.04. we walked through the El Questro-Gorge where wie could refreseh at Halfway Pool. On the way back we saw a tree snake and a young Black-headed python. The day after, we started early, visited Zeebedee-Springs and hiked through the Amilia-Gorge. Luckily, we had climbing belts for the kids as there were some exposed rocks requiring scrambling. But the reward was a nice natural pool with a 32m waterfall to cool down – what do you want more? The last day on the Gibb River Road we walked into Emma-Gorge, where we swam in a pool fed by a 65m waterfall. Pool badeten. After spotting a large olive python, nobody dared to approach the waterfall anymore.

The same afternoon, drove on the recently graded road into Purnululu National Park to the Bungle Bungles. On the 20.04., we explored the southern part with its bungles-like rock heads on a hike. We hiked into the Cathedral-Gorge, where we discovered on of the most poisonous snakes, a King Brown. At the Picanniny-Creek-Lookout we had a good view onto the impressive rock formations. The 21.4., wie first walked through the Mini Palm Gorge (named after the Livistona-Palmen in the upper part of the gorge ) and afterwards Echidna Chasm Gorge. This crack is impressing, in some places you really have to squeeze through the100m-walls. In both gorges, Markus took advantage of the acoustics with a reveberant sound of 5 seconds to play in several voices with the alphorn – for the surprise and joy of the other visitors.

After the Bungle Bungle, we continued to Wyndham and enjoyed te die 5 Flüsse am Five-River-Lookout before heading on to Parry Creek Farm and the day after to Kununurra.

Perth – Wiluna

Posted on 2. April 2016 by Markus

On the 28th of February, Daniela’s parents could pick up their rented campervan and wie met up at a shopping centre in the northern suburbs of Perth. We continued to the campsite at “Willowbrook Farm” close to Gingin, where we celebrated Daniela’s birthday with grilled sausages, salads and a self-made “crocodile cake” (Alemannia Café with Iring and a sugar crocodile). Unfortunately, the made-in-china-candles did not burn properly and Blei out with the slightest air breeze. Of the balloons produced in the same country, only few survived the inflation and none the next morning.

t is not exactly known how these columns were formed, most probably they originate from petrified tree trunks.

We spent the Night in Port Denison and the next day, we went to Kalbarri national park with interesting rock formations at thr coast. We spent the night some kilometres further south at Wagoe Campsite. The next day, we went snorkelling at the Blue Holes in Kalbarri Park where it is possible to go into shallow rock pools directly from the beach and observe colourful fish while standing – also Nora got to see a lot.
After a short drive we also hiked to the lookouts in the gorges of the Kalbarri-parkes before spending the next night at the 24h-rest area at Four Mile Pool on the highway.

With stopovers at the Overlander Roadhouse (Hans-Peter spent a night there a couple of years ago) and the Shell Beach close to Nanga Station wie went on to Denham with our Crocomobile and the campervan. On the campground, Nora and Fiona practised swimming and snorkelling. Because the Francois Peron Park is only accessible for 4WDs and unsuitable for the campervan, we split up the next day: Mechthild was sent to the Denham aquarium with Nora und Fiona, Hans-Peter drove to the park with Daniela and Markus. We Even persuaded him to drive the Crocomobile himself through the Sand – he probably would have loved to change his campervan for a 4WD and would have continued…From Cape Peron, we saw manta Rays, a little shark and a ray.

After a night with lots of flies next to a radio tower close to the high way, we went via Carnavaron to Point Quobba. The attractions there are on one hand the “Blowholes” – natural Rock holes where the water is squeezed through under pressure and Comedy up aus fountains – in the other hand the lagoon with ideal snorkelling conditions for the kids.

In Coral Bay wie did 2 boat trips to nearby Ningaloo Reef (coral reef): first a glass bottom boat tour with all of us. We drove directly over the corals and colurful fish, saw giant turtles and our children got the chance to feed the fish.
This tour turned out to be a private one because nobody else had booked in. We got the opportunity to learn a lot about this underwater world.
Markus und Daniela did the snorkelling tour afterwards: it was impressing to swim over the corals among the fish and turtles!

In Exmouth we discovered our car being next to another car with a Swiss number plate at the shopping centre. On the campsite we met the Buchmanns, a family touring Australia over the same time as we do (www.fambu5.ch).

We spent two nights at Ningaloo Caravan and Holiday Resort with a big pool and a water playground in town. The kids took the chance to play with Len, Suena und Zoe Buchmann. We continued to the Cape Range Park where we snorkelled at Turquoise Bay and at Oyster Stacks between lots of colourful fish and even Fiona got to see some fish through her goggles. One morning we hiked through Mandu Mandu Gorge.

We left the park towards the south via Yardie Creek in the early morning (exactly at 06.09h, when the tide was lowest), drove along the coast back to Coral Bay – the campervan had to take the tarred road via Exmouth and we met up again in heat, storm and flies at the Barradale 24h-rest area. The next day we went to Onslow, a salt mining town, without any important touristic attraction. Because one campground (Ocean View Caravan Park) was a major construction site, we accomodated at Discovery HP Onslow.

For the next 36 hours, the campervan and the Crocomobile separated :
unfortunately, the Millstream Chichester Park is only accessible on Travel roads which arerreichbar, die für das Mietmobil verboten sind. In Pannawonica we got the permit to drive on the road which is maintained by the mining company from Millstream Park to Karratha (permit is for free after watching a 20-min video). The western part of the park is like an oasis with its lakes and gorges compared to the surroundings, but we were the first visitors of the season and especially at night it was unbearably hot. Due to the temperatures and because not even the rangers had seen the condition of the walking tracks, we only did a short loop close to the visitor centre.

We met Daniela’s parents again at Dampier Transit Caravan Park where they had already spent the previous night. The campground is next to the freight harbour where you can observe the loading of the huge ore ships. The Pilbara is known to be the biggest ore mining region worldwide and with trains of several kilometers in lenght the ore is brought to the coast. The next day, we had by chance a private tour at the North West Shelf Visitor Centre, where we learned a lot about exploitation, drilling, processing and shipping of the gas.

In the afternoon, we visited the Aboriginal Art in der Deep Gorge in the recently founded Murujuga Park (Burrup Peninsula) before going shopping in Karratha.

On the further way towards the East, we visited the abandonned town Cossack (former important harbour and economical centre for pearls) with police station, post office and shops and then went snorkelling at Honneymoon Cove at Point Samson. The bay was nice, but compared to Nigaloo reef there were disappointingly few fish.

We spent the night at the Peawah-River and drove on to Port Hedland the next morning . There we tried to observe the loading of ore ships, unfortunately there a lots of fences and you cannot see a lot. We bought 3 additional plastic diesel jerry cans and a safety flag for the planned desert expedition (Canning-Stock-Route). The next stopover was the Karijini National Park. The campground at Dales Gorge is accessible on a tarred road, the rest of the park unfortunately only on gravel roads. The next morning, we squeezed into to Crocomobile to explore the western part of the park. The gorges are impressing, we walked the Weano Gorge with Oma and the kids and afterwards, Markus and Daniela walked through the more challenging Hancock Gorge. Here, in the lower part you can choose to climb over the rocks or to swim through the pools…Because Markus was carrying the backpack with the photo-camera, it was decided who walked and who climbed. At Kermit-pool, the backpack was deposed and also Markus refreseh by jumping into the water.

On the way back, we realized a clapping and grinding somewhere on our car. At the campsite, Markus removed one rear wheel and saw the origin of the noise. The covers of the brakes were torn and were now only attached to a single screw after all the bumpy roads. After taking them off, the noise was gone. The nett morning, a dingo visited us for breakfast.

In Newman wie brought these covers to a garage for welding and booked a tour for the Mount Whaleback Mine (iron ore mine ), which we found disappointing compared to the superpit-tour because we left the bus only at one viewing poinr far away from the mine and the guide only read their papers. But the amounts of ore which were mined were impressing: 14 trains, each one which 34200t iron ore in 259 wagons of a total length of 2.8km leave the mine each day towards the coast and fill up one ship.

At Gascoyne River next to the highway we had a farewell sausage and farewell beer from Opa.
The next day wie quickly met them in Meekatharra for an ice-cream and then turned off to Wiluna while “Oma und Opa” slowly had to go back to Perth via the goldfields.

In Wiluna we enquired about the condition of the planned desert track, the Canning Stock Route – we wanted to di the southern part up to Kunawaritji. At several official sites (police, shire, petrol station, campsite) we were told that there was an unusual amount of rain for the season in the last days and that nobody had done the Canning Stock Route so far in this season. This meant that it would be impossible ro get more concise infomation on the current condition of the track. They disadvised us to do it, dass the first groups were expected in mir-april. We saw huge puddles of mud next to the road around the town, we tried the first few hundred metres of the Canning Stock Route and indeed, again mud puddles (which wie could have passed easily) – but the question was how it would continue. We thought of the upcoming creek crossings, especially the Savory Creek at Well 19. We decided against trying it and for the moment we drove northwards on the North Road and later on the highway towards Newman.

Kalgoorlie – Perth

Posted on 1. March 2016 by Markus

After we as parents recovered from an overdose of childrens’ movies at Mt Thirsty close to Norseman, we drove on to Kalgoorlie the next day. This town owns the biggest gold mine in Australia which we wanted to see. On february 14th, we visited the museum and the city which has a number of historic buildings remaining from the time of the gold discovery and we booked the 2.5h Superpit-Tour for the next day.

First, we were afraid the tour being too long for our children, but the fun already started with the hand-over of the security clothing (vest, glasses, helmet).
When we saw the first big machines, the children were enthusiastic. The dumptrucks (CAT 793) were especially impressive: they came out of the 500m pit with 250 tons of stones each time. They are loaded by diggers (Komatsu 8000) which carry each time 50 tons in their shovel. Before, the rock was loosend before by blazing and according to the material drilled our for the blazing holes, they know the gold contents of each area.
When driving out of the Superpit (overall size 3500m x 1500m x 500m depth), the trucks are led to different depots according to the gold concentration in their load.
Currently, only material with a high concentration is refined- out of one truck load, they get around 80g gold.
The remaining matrial with a lower gold concentration is currently stored on the area next to the pit. For the processing of these stones, it is planned to let the mine continue for another 13 years after finishing the digging (probably in 2021).
We rarely had such a good guided tour, there was a lot of information and live demonstrations: we could observe the loading and unloading of the dumptrucks and we saw the machines for extracting the good when driving through.

Our children got infected by the “mine machine virus” and after the tour, they received their toy dumptruck and digger for playing on the campgrounds. All of them have more than enough sand, dirt and stones- our children found that these vehicles were the ideal toys.
We had chosen the “Holland Track” leading from Coolgardie to Hyden for heading on. After the tour we made it to “Thursday Rock” which we had to ourselves – with at least 100 km to the next house.
The next day, the track continued with slalom around trees, passing through and around mud holes and over rocky sections.

Finally, we arrived at the famous Wave Rock. After evening photos, a night at the campsite and a morning walk to the “yawning hippo” and to the top of the rock, we headed on south to Lake Magenta and Fitzgerald National Park.

After visiting the beach, we staid here for one night at the campground “St. Mary’s Inlet”. We saw lots of interesting plants, many of them in blossom – some species only exist in this park.
The next morning, went straight through the park to Bremer Bay. The “continuous” road on the map turned out to be the crossing of an estuary and would have been possible only on absolutely low tide. But we arrived at Almosen high tide and Daniela got into the water up to her back when crossing it on foot. We had to go back 20km to leave the park on another road.

Initially, we had planned to drive to Stirling Range National Park and to for a hike that day. We cancelled it due to the weather: there were grey clouds in the sky and with the starting rain, we did mit want to to on a hike on which we would not have had any view.
We went on to Porrongurup National Park, where there was no sun neither but at least no rain. We walked up to Castle Rock: there was the “balancing rock” (our childrens tried to push it down) and the skywalk- some scrambling over ladders and boulders to an overhanging platform beside the rock. Without the fog, there would have been a great view…

After the night at Porongurup Caravan Park we went further south to Albany. There, we bought an annual pass for the parks in Western Australia and had our front tyres switched with the back tyres in a garage to prevent inequal usage. We visited the blowholes at Torndirrup National Park (by the pressure of the Waves, air is blowholes through a gap between the rocks) and Stony Hill, afterwards wie continued to the Giant Trees close to Walpole.
Instead of the famous but very expensive Valley of the Giants Tree Top Walk (zu teuer), we did the also beautiful and free Tingle Tree Walk, where you Fan admire several of these eucalyptus giants and them went on to Crystal Springs.

WFrom there, we reached d’Entrecastaux National Park on small Travel roads and finally sand tracks through the dunes at Windy Harbour. Some Kilometers before the village, there was another Landrover on the Track which got bogged in the sand. We helped them to get out (they had already done most of the work) and we passed the section without any problems due to a low tyre pressure. After a break at Windy Harbour, we drove on toWarren National Park and saw one of “Dave Evans Bicentennal Trees” an. This tree was one of the Fire lookout towers.
Over Windung stairs consisting of pegs drilled into the tree, it is possible to climb up to the platform 65m above the ground. We only did the first few meters. For the next day, we had planned a track along the coast up to Augusta. Again due to a sufficiently low tyre pressure, the deepest sand was no problem. After a photo stop at Cape Leeuwin, we went to Conto Camping at the Cave Road.

After a rainy night, we had to get set up with helmets and torches at Calgardup cave and we climbed down into the depths of the Cave – the children in front as little spelunkers. We had 45minutes to visit this beautiful cave (selfguided) and it was always a struggle between the two kids who was walking in front. After another Crocomobile-drive, we reached Bunbury where we booked two nights on the Big4Campsite.

We profited of its infrastructure and the three women baked bread, cake and biscuits. In the dolphin centre, we informed ourselves about these ocean mammals and weile we balanced the pros and contras of the a boat tour to see them, the Bell rang to announce dolphins at the beach.
Like all the other visitors, we immediately ran to the beach and really: directly in front of us, some dolphins were splashing in the water. Under instruction of the volunteers we could even get close to them in the water. Therefore, the boat Tour was no longer an issue and wie saved the 150$. On the was back to the campground, we did a short detour Mangrove Walk.

In Perth, many tourist attractions were under construction and we liked the city only moderately. However, the ringing of the bells at Swanbell Tower was really nice.
On 26.2., wie visited Fremantle which we liked more due to its charming city centre. Also the guided tour through the ancient famous prison was very interesting. We had planned to buy a didgeridoos at “Didgeridoobreath”. We got a professional advice and finally acquired a very nice didgeridoo made from eucalyptus tree – made by Jesse we had met on the campground in Tasmania. In the evening, Markus went back to the store to do some recording with didgeridoo and alphorn with Sanshi (owner of the shop).

Here are the 3 Pieces:

Markus & Sanshi 1

[sc_embed_player_template1 fileurl=”http://crocomobile.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Markus_Sanshi1.mp3″]

Markus & Sanshi 2
[sc_embed_player_template1 fileurl=”http://crocomobile.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Markus_Sanshi2.mp3″]

Markus & Sanshi 3
[sc_embed_player_template1 fileurl=”http://crocomobile.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Markus_Sanshi3.mp3″]

On 27.2., wie met Daniela’s parents at Ibis hotel in Perth and visited again the city centre of Perth and the Kings Park. On 28.2., wie headed on to the north…

Melbourne – Nullarbor Plain

Posted on 21. February 2016 by Markus

After the ride in the ferry, we went to Sundowner Campground in the western part of Melbourne – this time with two frozen princesses (thanks to face painting on the ferry). The next day, we had a few things to do: Noras hiking boots needed a cobbler, we had to pick up two new iPads from Apple (Daniela’s old one was stolen or found and immediately taken at South Cape in Tasmania- and Markus had discovered the advantages of an iPad…) and Nora’s arm had to be xrayed again – luckily, it is healing well.
On the ship we heard about Ballarat, an old gold mining town. We visited the place the next day, we could wash gold ourselves in a little river, they showed craftsmen around 1850 und – for the children- there was a sweets making show with degustation. The Kids had the opportunity to be rich for some seconds, while holding a freshly poured goldbar of 3 kg (150’000$AU) in their hands!

Via Geelong we drove towards the Great Ocean Road, where you drive along the ocean for quite some time. We spent the next night at Cape Otway on the “Bimbi – Camping under koalas”and indeed, we discovered some grey furballs in the trees.

After another 150km Great Ocean Road, in Warrnambool we turned inland towards the Grampians. We spent the night at Plantation Campground and the next day, we hiked to the “Pinnacles” before continuing to Lake Albacutya, where we spent the night.

It was considerably warmer than at the coast and also our old friends – the sandflies! – were back. The next day, we went on in deep sand into the Wyperfeld National Park. We had to lower our already low tyre pressure at one dune to climb it – at another dune, Markus was so fast that a wine bottle broke and we lost the rear number plate. Fortunately, we realized it 25km later, drove back and found it (since the front number plate is already a fake one!).
Afterwards we continued further northwards to the Murray-Sunset park to the “Pink Lakes”, where we spent the night at Lake Hardie, a dry salt lake (it is really pink, due to betacarotin-producing algae!). The next day we drove on sand- and dirtroads through the Murray-Sunset Park and crossed the border to South Australia close to Meribah. We had to eat up all fruits and vegetables before – each state has its own regulation for the import of plant products.

We went on towards Port Augusta and passed a night with the so far most mosquitoes (huge mosquito swarms right after sunset) close to Port Pirie at “Newoora Playground” – no wonder, there was a swamp right next to it.
In Port Augusta we visited the “Wadlata Outback Centre” – a good exhibition with interesting films and information concerning the outback.
In the swimmingpool of the Big 4- campground we could cool down and even Nora (the “one-finned fish” with arm Ding) and Fiona were again clean. Since the campground had an oven, we had self-made cake and bread !
The next day, we went to Port Lincoln, where we bought fresh fish and prawns before heading to “Mikkira Station”. There are currently living around 100 koalas (they were brough there 40 years ago). We slept under an eucalyptus tree, saw a few animals and the next morning, two koalas were even watching us having breakfast.

When we visited Lincoln National Park the next morning, there was a seal splashing around right next to the shore at Cape Donnington and some of its friends were sitting on the nearby island. We drove back to Eyre Highway and they towards the Gawler Ranges and spent the night at Pildappa Rock.
The rock has a similar shape as the west australian Wave Rock, only smaller. Therefore, we had it to ourselves and climbed up at night to admire the stars. The next morning, we went on to the “Organ Pipes” (basalt formations in shape of organ pipes – just those we saw in Namibia were more impressive).

In Ceduna, we filled up our tank and the jerrycans, the next night we spent at Cactus Beach – around 80 km west of Ceduna.
Now the Nullarbor Plain was waiting for us. For the kids, we installed our laptop between the front seats to watch movies – with Mickey Mouse, the Jungle Book and Blinky Bill the time on the 1000 km long distance in two days passed rapidly.

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Category Archives: Western Australia

Wiluna – Kununurra

Perth – Wiluna

Kalgoorlie – Perth

Melbourne – Nullarbor Plain